Last weekend Oldham Netball Club competed for the U16 National Championships. The finals were held at the Sugden centre in Manchester.

The gruelling two day tournament included the top two teams from each of the nine regions in England.

Oldham qualified as NorthWest region runners up and were put into a tough group with the winners of the East region Turnford and the winners of the South West region Hucclecote.

Oldham got off to a fine start in the first game against Turnford leading 18 – 11 at half time. It was a great game for the many spectators as Turnford managed to fight back into a 2 goal lead in the 4th quarter, Oldham managed to finish the stronger to win by 30 – 28.

Oldhams second 40 minute game of the day was another closley fought encounter, Oldham beating a strong Hucclecote side 35 -30.

A now tired Oldham side then came up against Parkside, winners of the West Midlands region. The Oldham players many of who are a year young at U15, stuck with the bigger and stonger Parkside girls up until the final quarter when unforced errors cost Oldham the game with Parkside running out winners 27 – 19.

Oldham started Sunday the final day with renewed optimism that we could reach the third place play off. Unfortunatly this was not to be as Oldham were beaten by Cobham 36 – 27. This meant Oldham would play off for 5th place in the final match.

Oldham finished the tournament strongly with a great performance and result beating Telstars 35 – 15. Oldham finished the tournement in 5th place out of 18.